


Fever

by renardroi



Category: Campaign (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Ill update tags as i go, mostly interactions between jane and tryst but its not romantic, no that's not a euphemism, some casual misgendering bc tryst is the way he is, tryst gets a solo job
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 15:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11808990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renardroi/pseuds/renardroi
Summary: (decided to separate this from the other - sorry!)Tryst is more than a little surprised when he gets a call from Jane, asking if he can help her with a job. He'd been so sure he'd burned that bridge that he hadn't even bothered to keep her number, so the first few times he sees a strange designation calling him on his comlink, he flat out ignores it - although admittedly two of the three times he ignores them is partially because he's in the middle of a firefight when his comlink starts beeping obnoxiously. The third time, he ignores the call out of spite - for distracting him and revealing his position to half a dozen security droids.





	Fever

Tryst is more than a little surprised when he gets a call from Jane, asking if he can help her with a job. He'd been so sure he'd burned that bridge that he hadn't even bothered to keep her number, so the first few times he sees a strange designation calling him on his comlink, he flat out ignores it - although admittedly two of the three times he ignores them is partially because he's in the middle of a firefight when his comlink starts beeping obnoxiously. The third time, he ignores the call out of spite - for distracting him and revealing his position to half a dozen security droids. 

He does answer eventually, though, barking out an annoyed  _what_  as he sprints towards where he knows he left his ship.

"Finally," Jane says, and he can't place her voice at first - it's been a couple years - but as she starts talking, rushing to explain herself before Tryst can get a word in edgewise, he suddenly realizes and skids to a halt. "Listen, I've got a job for you - it's - well, I have a job and I'm supposed to get some information out of this asshole in the middle of nowhere, but they don't trust anyone and anyways the only person I know who could somehow manage to charm this jerk into telling us where the cache is at is...you."

He doesn't reply at first, a little busy with trying to dodge potshots from the security that's now catching up with him. 

"Tryst? Hello?" Her voice comes through the comlink and he's surprised to find that she sounds genuinely worried. Tryst sighs as he rounds a corner and steps into the empty lot that was supposed to have his ship, but instead he and the flashing alarms are the only things in here.  

"Yeah, yeah, it sounds good. You need my effortless charms and beautiful face - I understand. Sure. What system are you in? You can come pick me up." 

 

* * *

 

"Okay, explain this to me -  _one_  more time." 

Jane heaves an exasperated sigh, and interacts with the holographic map in front of her, zooming back out too show the whole moon. "This is the moon - right? An -" 

"Yeah, yeah the moon, the cave near one of the poles, Borace - I got that part, just skip to the plan part." They're standing in Jane's ship, with Jane in the pilot's seat fiddling with the controls and the hologram while Tryst is trying to lean casually against various surfaces and completely failing to muster any semblance of the cool and unaffected attitude that usually comes easily. It's really cramped in here, and he keeps accidentally leaning against weird buttons and knobs that - frankly - have no business being there. He's not even sure what theyre supposed to be for, since this dingy little dinghy shouldn't have more than a few go-buttons and maybe some light switches - it doesn't have any guns or anything. 

"Please stop pushing the - you're leaning on the controls for the degausser - please -" The a strange humming noise starts up suddenly and Jane buries her face in her hands, defeated. Tryst brushes off his vest as nonchalantly as he can and decides it's probably best to just lean on the doorway. 

"Okay." Jane says after she composes herself again. "Here's the bunker -"

"The cave." 

"The  _bunker_ , that Jar'eke built. If they see you land, they're not going to let you in if you just walk right up to the entrance -" 

"The entrance to the cave."

"Okay, yes, the bunker is in a cave - listen - just pay attention, please." With a wave of her hand the hologram magnifies, showing the area in more detail. There's a blinking red dot where Jar'eke's cave is supposed to be. "Over here there's a small ridge that they can't see past from the bunker, and it's just outside the range of their sensors."

"And you want me...to crash there?" Tryst gives her a long look. "You want to hire me, possibly one of the best pilots in the galaxy, to crash a ship on the surface of some backwater moon?" 

"No - okay, listen. If you're a good pilot you can crash land without doing to much damage to you or the ship, right?" Jane stands, pointing the the terrain around the ridge. "I'm hiring you to lure this guy out. Okay? A decent looking ship crashes on a moon in the middle of the Balmorra Run, and it seems like no one's coming to loot it? They're going to come out of their bunker to check it out, I promise you."

Tryst looks dubious. "So I'm going to be stranded on a moon for a couple of days - does this place even have an atmosphere?" 

"Yes! It has an atmosphere." She crosses her arms. "And I'm going to give you rations - there's a polar crater nearby with ice in it. If you run out of water, all you have to do is walk to it, boil the water and then drink it. And you'll be able to contact me if anything goes bad."

"If I have to walk two miles to boil moon ice into drinking water, I'm pretty sure that means things are very, very bad. I'm not doing that." Tryst shrugs and Jane shoots him a withering glare. 

"Just make sure when they come to check things out, you convince them to take you back to the bunker. That way, when I come down, you can let me in and we can figure out where the cache is." 

"Fifty percent, that's my final offer." 

"Tryst, you're getting paid in credits - even I'm not going to get whatever's in the cache." 

"Okay, you drive a hard bargain." Tryst pauses, thinking. "Forty percent." 

 

* * *

 

The ship Jane lends him is a one-person, rusty, beat-up bucket of bolts, but she assures him it's capable of flight several times, and that the reason it's not pretty is - _because_ , Valentine, you're crashing it on the moon. Which he can't really argue with. The cockpit smells like very old, fake leather and some kind of awful smell that has to be mold or something - and all of the controls are covered in a thick layer of dust. This thing clearly hasn't seen daylight in decades. 

The engines start on only the second try, however, and besides a few shudders and groans, it gets off the ground well enough. A hologram of Jane pops up next to him as he takes off. 

"Alright, I'll be following you up until we get into the system, Valentine. I'm gonna park my ship behind one of the gas planets nearby, but you should still be able to get a hold of me, don't worry." 

"I'm not worried, I packed my best kimono." 

Jane groans and ends the call unceremoniously. Tryst takes that as invitation to go ahead and jump to hyperspace. They're actually not too far from the system they're supposed to be going to, so the trip only takes several hours instead of several days. It's still too long. And although the ship rattles and hums angrily every now and then, it's eerily silent. The chaos of the Mynock had become so everyday that being alone on a quiet and cramped ship is...well...

He definitely doesn't feel bad about having setting off with Jane straight after leaving a few choice voicemails for Bacta. They left without him, after all. They probably weren't just going to leave him there and run off with his ship, but they  _left without him_. It's his ship! That being said, he's adult enough to admit that he already misses having too many people in one ship. On the _Mynock_ he doesn't even have to raise his voice to ask someone to bring him a drink - they're all close by. He doesn't miss the nagging, however - and mostly doesn't miss the lizards. He's always worried he's going to accidentally step on one of them and some minister from the empire is going to descend from the pitch of space like a sneaky something or other. 

It's not an unreasonable fear. 

Anyways, as long as he just gets some kind of sound on to cover up the rattling dampeners and the long stretches of silence, he'll have a few blissful hours to himself and just himself. Quietly and perfectly alone. 

 

* * *

 

"Val-t- -an yo- r---?" Jane's voice and holographic form turn into unrelenting static, and Tryst takes some initiative to fiddle with all the knobs and buttons and things in front of him, trying to hunt down something that could untangle the signal from fluffy ball of audio yarn that was immediately grating. 

"I don't know what you're asking me but I can guess the answer is no," Trystan said as he turned his ship towards the gas giant Jane was supposed to be behind. It was an ugly swirl of blue and green with an odd white spot near one of the poles. 

"--- - -orry, the ship you're in really is a rust bucket. I've moved away from the magnetic storm that should help." Tryst stopped his about and made a show of rolling his eyes and looking annoyed before realizing no one was there to see it. He hunched his shoulders. Jane's voice was mostly fine, only cutting out occasionally, but the hologram definitely wasn't working, so he could only assume that the same was true for her.

"Yeah, what a hunk a junk - you don't even have the pleasure of getting to see me." 

Jane made a noise that sounded suspiciously annoyed. "Valentine, there's a hermit planetside waiting for you to swoop in and woo them into letting their guard down. Focus on the mission - or the reward for maybe a minute? Might actually do you some good."

"Is that seriously the plan? I'm going to  _woo_  some guy to get into his house?" 

"Their bunker. But yes - I mean no. You do have to get this crash right or the chances of this working are very poor. Please, please, Trystan try to land in the right spot. And don't break the ship too much. I'm planning on scrapping it for credits. My girlfriend's birthday is coming up, I could buy her something nice." 

"Oh, come on, you could buy her something nice with the reward!" Tryst takes the controls of the ship again and starts angling her for landing. The floating image of his planned trajectory popped up in place of the floating fuzz that was Jane. "I thought the crash was supposed to look real. If you want it to look real, you have to expect that this old thing is just going to fall apart as soon as it touches the surface." 

"Don't ruin my girlfriend's new outfit. Don't get yourself killed, Valentine." She stops, like she has something else she wants to say, but stays silent. 

"Fine, fine. No promises."

"Do we need to go over the plan again? Listen, the rations are in a compartment near the -" Tryst cut her off

"I got it, I got it. I'll be done in four hours tops." He slammed the throttle before she could reply, speeding towards the moon with a confident grin. 

 

* * *

 

The crash goes as well as can be expected. Trystan throws the emergency brake at the last possible second to make the impact less severe, trying to hide the unnatural deceleration behind the ridge. He tries to divert some of the power from the engines to the measly shields the ship has, hoping they'll absorb some of the worst of it. But in the end, he is crashing a ship. It skips against the surface once, and the front end unexpectedly tips down. The whole thing flips and rolls. While it rolls and skids it's impossible to tell which way is up let alone discern anything from the readouts in front of him. All of it is a shaking blurry mess. The only thing he can do is hope nothing goes too wrong. 

The ship stops rolling, but continues to slide against the ground, kicking up a massive cloud of green-grey dust and dirt. Something must have broken, because suddenly a plume of the dust invades the cockpit, blinding Tryst more than is probably necessary. He coughs and as soon as his eyes start watering, there's a crackling boom and the ship jolts like its tripped over a rock. The impact tears metal debris loose and the safety harness strains as gravity tries to pry him from his seat. 

The harness snaps. 


End file.
